Leakage at First U.S. Carbon Capture Injection Well Proves that CCS Can’t Work

News broke this morning of the Environmental Protection Agency launching an enforcement action against the country’s first underground carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) facility after a leak was discovered earlier this year at a site tied to ethanol production.

In response, Food & Water Watch Policy Director Jim Walsh issued the following statement:

“The lack of transparency from EPA about this leak is alarming but unfortunately in line with a failure of federal oversight for the entire carbon capture industry. Waiting a month to notify the public of this violation is especially egregious given the major health and safety risks associated with carbon dioxide contamination in air and water.

“Carbon dioxide Injection wells are a dangerous endeavor, even if EPA does not capitulate to industry demands to rush permitting. This incident puts an exclamation point on concerns communities across the country have been raising for years about the dangers the CCS industry poses to public safety and drinking water.

“The reality is this: CCS is a technologically unsound and economically unviable scheme, perpetuated by the fossil fuel industry to allow oil and gas companies to keep on drilling, keep on fracking, and keep on polluting our planet.”